social policy in different cultures

China’s social policy

* one child policy - from 1970s - 2015 chines government population control policy discouraged parents from having more than one child
* women had to seek permission of workplace to try and get pregnant, was often a waiting list etc.
* couples who complied with policy got extra benefits e.g. free child healthcare, couples who had more than one child had to pay fines
* women faced pressure to undergo sterilisation after their first child

Communist Romania

* in 1980s communist government brought in policies to drive up birth rate which had been decreasing as result of falling living standards
* restricted contraception and abortion, made divorce more difficult, lowered legal age of marriage to 15, made unmarried adults and childless couples pay extra 5% income tax

Nazi family policy

* in 1930s state pursued twofold policy - encouraged healthy and ‘racially pure’ to breed ‘master race’ e.g. restricting access to abortion and contraception
* policy sought to keep women out of workforce and confined to domestic role
* state also compulsorily sterilised 375,000 disabled people that it deemed ‘unfit’ to breed

democratic societies

* family is a private sphere in which government doesn’t intervene except when things ‘go wrong’ e.g. child abuse
* however, sociologists argue that even in democratic societies the state’s social policies play a big role in shaping family life